In this post, Ricky Chachra, Research Science Manager at Lyft, provides insight for companies looking to home-grow their promising individual contributors (ICs) into effective managers. He reflects on his journey at Lyft, where he started as a data/research scientist and transitioned into a science management role.

This is an important topic. The author, one of the original data scientists at Lyft, shares how manager / IC relationships hit a 1:15 ratio at one point—hardly a ratio that allows for any real interaction or growth on either side. The industry as a whole needs more managers to develop the constant influx of new talent, and the only way to create them is to grow them from ICs.